Telemundo has announced a series of social TV firsts for the Billboard Latin Music Awards, airing April 26 at 7 p.m.
The Hispanic broadcaster has partnered with three heavyweights in the social community – Shazam, Trendrr and Klout – for a series of initiatives it champions as a landmark for the U.S. Hispanic audience.
“This is an overload of social experiences,” Borja Perez, SVP of Digital and Social Media for Telemundo Media, told TheWrap. “We’re extremely committed to social media and it’s not us, it’s the consumer. The U.S. Hispanic community is uber-social.
“What well see the night of the Billboards is really cool,” Perez added. “It’s the first time it’s been done in the U.S. Hispanic market.”
So what is Telemundo doing?
It has partnered with Klout in naming the top 12 scorers influencers in “the music, entertainment and Latino categories.” Klout analyzes a user’s engagement across social networks and gives them a ranking based off that.
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Those influencers will spend Thursday with Telemundo Media, meeting various executives and talent. The hope is that those influencers will then talk about the show online.
Telemundo has also partnered with Shazam, the music and TV discovery app, making this the first Shazam-able show on the network.
Sponsored by State Farm, viewers can Shazam interviews with the talent attending, such as Pitbull and Shakira. Once they Shazam the show, viewers can access information about their favorite artists on the talent, including videos and pictures.
As for Trendrr, a social media analytics company, Telemundo will partner with them to offer a ranking of the most buzzed-about celebrities the night of the show.
Trendrr will not only help Telemundo measure the social sentiment around the show but will curate a ranking of the hottest topics and top five artists during the show. Trendrr’s service filters data from Twitter and Facebook in both Spanish and English.
“When we saw the Oscars and how they were creating these raknings, I met with my team and said, ‘How and when can we do something like this?” Perez said.
Now they have, but the real test will be whether this builds buzz around and ratings for the show, which has aired on Telemundo since 1999.
And what does the growing Spanish-language network think all these social intiatives will do?
"Right now, we are totally in the development phases of our strategy, working very close with the NBC Universal team," Perez said. "My role is, I want to deliver the maximum amount of engeagement between platforms."
